Survey Results

Three out of four parents responding to our survey believe it is important for all parents to have made a will; however, only ONE in four parents of children aged 17 or under have an up to date one.

We asked for reasons why there might be this gap. 44% of those without a will said they hadn’t got round to it and 37% hadn’t thought about it. 15% hoped it wouldn’t be needed yet and 9% said it was too difficult to think about. Read more about Making a will

One half (51%) of those responding to the survey who had children aged 17 and under said that they had NOT made guardianship arrangements. Of those that hadn't made arrangements, reasons included: hadn’t thought about it (46%); hadn’t got round to it (21%); too hard to think about it (15%); hope it wouldn’t be necessary (25%) and unable to agree on suitable guardians with the other parent (7%). Read more about Appointing Guardians

Just 1 in 3(37%) of those we asked thought that someone in their family would know how to access their financial information including details of accounts, insurances, pension and employment arrangements and also would know how to access their online accounts. Read more about Financial affairs

Only 1 in 6 of those we asked had written a letter to be read by their child or children after their death. Reasons offered for not having done so included: 53% had not thought about it; 20% hope it would not be needed and 15% thought it was too difficult to decide what to say. 17% of people found it too upsetting to think about. ‘I’d never be able to stop writing, I’ve got too much to say to them’. Read more about Writing a letter to your child

About the survey

The poll of 2000 parents of children aged 0-17 was carried out by OnePoll in September 2014.